Easy Peasy Watercolor Leaves

Conference weekend can be a challenge when you have 3 active boys and no Hubs at home. It seems football life has always made this the case. Just keeping them safe from injuries, while you try to squeeze in a listen here and there is tempting enough to make you want to throw in the towel and vow that you will listen to all of those amazing talks, after kiddos go to sleep.

Of course you are just making it through the last of those talks by the time the next conference rolls around 6 months later… yikes!

We kept ourselves busy this weekend with painting ANYTHING we could get our hands on: sticks, rocks, paper and… leaves! 

I found these water color pencils at the dollar store, which were perfect for this project with the boys, but the possibilities are endless when you consider all the other colors you could use outside this basic box. 

Simply dip the very tip of your pencil in the water like so, and you are ready to paint. Be prepared to dip after each application, and I found it helpful to have a pencil sharpener handy as the tips can run out of life quickly. 

Start with gathering some leaves

And away you and your littles can go!

We found that painting on the back side gave us the best results, the fronts have that nice waxy feel that give them a fabulous shine, but not so fabulous for absorbing paint. 

I loved all the imperfections!

 Some we highlighted and others were best left 

just the way they were

This is the start of something good :) 

Link to Generations

It has been a good few years, since I first had the desire to compile and somehow share the incredible people that I have met throughout life and how they inspire me to live the way I live. I could just never quite wrap my mind around the most effective way to do it. Sure, I went through a few options in my mind but none of them seemed like the most interesting way to capture others attention and lets be honest, the option of a blog? Well, it must be obvious to anyone that the blogging world is nearly over saturated with creative and "willing to share" people with the best and most innovative ideas that we all love. Hello Pinterest! I am right there with the next person getting inspired by Pinterest daily, to which I thank those over zealous and most creative people for sharing from the bottom of my heart. Seriously!… But somehow I just couldn't anticipate that another blog, Especially one that does't boast tasty recipes or the latest trends, would be fascinating to anyone. So, I got real and asked myself who is my target audience? (I know, hilarious that I assumed there would be an audience) and I'm going to venture to say that it was almost immediately that the answer was a resounding: your posterity! I want my boys to know who I am, and why, and plant in them the seeds to look for the good in others. To know that God answers our prayers and molds us through others and we in turn have the power to do the same. So of course a blog is in fact the best way that I know of to write your own personal story and have it made into a book.

I believe strongly in the connection between the human family and specifically between past and future generations. I have never been much into the data collecting of my genealogy, (despite the fact that I worked at Myfamily.com for nearly a year during college), I have however, always loved to hear the stories told to me by Grandma Elsie and Grandma Eileen. I would listen in amazement that they could actually recall all of those facts and stories, some passed down through generations. One time, while in college, I sat down with Grandma Eileen and gave her an interview of sorts as I typed as fast as I could go, the answers she gave. Speaking of Grandma Eileen, it has been almost 3 years since she passed and I have to say that I think I am just beginning to mourn her death. It happened so unexpectedly, and with all the attention on Grandpa Bill and his rapid decline in health, her passing almost seemed like a cruel joke. I didn't know how to get myself to believe that it was truly real. 

The only way that I know I am starting to accept that she has literally passed to the other side, is that lately as I sit to play the piano, and plunk my way through the Hymns that Scott has assigned me, I think of Her. I think of her love of music, I think of the story I heard time and time again, of her father who was also very musical buying her a piano as a girl, which was no small feat in those days. I think of the fact that she was self taught, which is mind boggling to me, and then taught others for decades. She used her talent to give a lifetime worth of service in the church playing the piano. So while I practice, as of lately, it is her example that motivates me to develop and grow. And I literally feel her presence with me and her encouragement as I take on this challenge at such a busy time in my life.

Picture taken of us in 2007 at my baby shower when I was pregnant with Ty.

Having all of these thoughts lately and following my heart to start "my book", I was thrilled to learn today in church about the stories of Pioneers and how we are all Pioneers in some shape of form. In fact a beautiful lady raised her hand right before the lesson was ending to make the comment that she had once heard, "if you ever write a book, let it be the book of your life." Well there ya go! 

One lady was heavy advocating the family search section of LDS.org during the lesson. I became really excited about the idea of showing this to my boys and more particularly about finding out exactly what countries my ancestors came from since I LOOOVVEE to travel and have been wanting for sometime to go to several European countries. Ty and I searched and so far found that we had Ireland, England, Scotland, Denmark and Germany in our family line. We even have an ancestor who immigrated to Canada first before going to the U.S. It was fun to be about to show Ty the pictures that were on the site, entered by others in the family line. On one particular ancestor it was noted that she was known for her blond hair and blue eyes. I turned to Ty and said, "that's where we get it!" He quickly put that to rest by replying, "no mom your hair is black, you just make it blond." Hummmm, well it was once blond, smarty pants. Here are some of the pictures I found

Charles E. Peterson middle back row, is my Great Great Grandfather married to Barbara Ann for whom I am named after. She was an amazing hard working woman, who raised my Grandpa Bill after his mother died while he was a young boy.

Jane Johnston Black is one of my more famous (in the LDS Church) relatives, as she was a midwife who delivered many babies on the trek as well as took care of John Taylor and dressed his wounds following the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.

There is simply an empowerment that comes, when you learn the legacies of those that came before you and consider the legacy that you want to leave behind to those that follow. 

If that doesn't motivate you to live a full life, I can't imagine what could. 

We would love to have you

The truth is I have a handful of blogs. A private one for the really cherished thoughts. An older one from back in the day, when I jumped on the bandwagon and joined the thousands of other families that attempted to document every little happening in their new family, all while nursing a new baby, or having a baby, or working, or moving or any of the many things that go along being a relatively new wife or mother. Some of my friends miraculously have kept this practice up, and even have a book printed each year from their families life, I on the other hand did not succeed at keeping my family blog going in the early days. Maybe it was due to moving every six months, maybe it was because I was pregnant or nursing for 6 years, or maybe It was simply because I was in a haze just trying to stay afloat. :) In addition to those, I also have a special blog that documented our beloved 2 months of living in Hawaii, a trip that I swear saved my husband from going completely crazy after a rough 6 years of career ups and mostly downs.

So here I am again starting yet another blog, why? I love to write. I cherish memories. And frankly I don't remember things that well on my own, (just ask my best friend Kayla who memorizes numerous events by year, including my random personal life happenings that I may have told her one late night over ice cream,... and don't remember the next week my self!) In fact my mother-in-law once told me, "we use our brains to problem solve not to remember, so write it down." I don't believe that my life is any more important than the next person's, in reality I am on a quest to say quite the opposite. I believe that my life is made up of all those people who have come in it, wether it be a moment long enough to have a conversation, or years of experiences and memories. I have a goal to document and highlight those people,  those connections, and experiences that make me who I am and who my family is greatly influenced by. I'm going for that book, with our life story for my family. That my kids can read years from now and be inspired by those who inspired us, and eager to build a life they love. Of course anyone is welcome to come along if they wish, we would love to have you.